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Once upon a time, this deck was Standard (specifically from Scars of Mirrodin Block / M12 / Innistrad Block / M13). At the time it dominated my local metas with its speed and aggression - it played like a cheap aggro deck but was actually a midrange/tempo/beatdown deck. It was capable of delivering some huge damage fast and was well-balanced to have decent removal built in also. I keep a lot of my old standard deck lists, but rarely keep the decks themselves built; this deck was so original and fun it remains an exception to that pattern.
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Most of the spells in the deck (73% -- almost 3/4 of all the spells in the deck!) cost 1, 2, or 3 mana. Assuming you can get one mana ramp creature on Turn 1 and two lands by Turn 2 - not a difficult task with 30 mana sources - you can play . This means the deck is very inexpensive, fast, and threatening.
The main strategy here is beatdown -- fast. But there are many tools for nearly every situation, most of which can be played starting on Turn 2. Deathtouch, hexproof, reach, trample, and undying are a few of the deck's key mechanics. An often-overlooked and underused card from M13 (Mwonvuli Beast Tracker) lets us fetch nearly any of those abilities to be used wherever it's needed. Those creatures also tend to be capable of more than just their desired ability, often leading to a 2-for-1 by tutoring for said creatures.
On top of that, there is plenty of recursion either from the graveyard or from 'flickering' powerful creatures with 'enters the battlefield' abilities. Many cards have undying, can come back from the graveyard somehow, or leave a present behind when they leave. All of this means that the deck is very resilient against removal while still applying pressure every turn.
Finally, this deck has a very good removal suite. Many of the creatures are good at trading for other creatures in combat (resilient, as I mentioned). Acidic Slime can be used to destroy many permanents, then trade for a creature, and can be 'flickered' for multiple uses. Finally, Beast Within is probably the most powerful removal card ever printed and this deck runs 4 of them. With these tools nothing will really stand in the way of a good, honest pummeling.
Next I'll take a moment to list the cards of this deck and why they were chosen for the job.
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Creatures:
Porcelain Legionnaire : I have always loved this card. I drafted the heck out of it and used it in sealed. A 3/1 with first strike on Turn 2, sometimes armed with a Rancor, far outclasses most T2 plays.
Restoration Angel : Any deck running during this standard era ran this card, and with good reason. Its bulk is good enough for its cost, but having flash and a 'flicker' ability means it can save creatures and do double duty with ETB effects.
Avacyn's Pilgrim : An early mana dork. Not nearly as useful as a Llanowar Elves, but that card wasn't standard at the time, and this deck does run , so it is somewhat useful.
Birds of Paradise : Now this is a mana dork. Not only can it give any color I need (read:), but it also has flying! That seems irrelevant with 0 power, but with a Rancor or with counters from Gavony Township Birds actually becomes an airborne threat.
Dungrove Elder : This card can be fetched for hexproof with Beast Tracker but its real power comes from, well...it's power. This deck's mana base consists of 18 Forests, meaning it scales well with the game and is hard to kill.
Thragtusk : YES! This card does it all: 5/3 body, competitive mana cost (splash-able), gains 5 life every time it enters, and leaves behind a 3/3 beast when it goes away. You can't ask for much else. Oh, and did I mention Restoration Angel?
Strangleroot Geist : This is a great Turn 2 play. If Birds was my Turn 1 play, it's not uncommon to land a T2 Geist with a Rancor (yes, I love that card as well) to swing for 4 with trample that turn. Plus undying? <3
Mwonvuli Beast Tracker : The Tracker is a niche card that I fell in love with during its standard days. I never saw it get much use, but its ability was too unique and too useful to ignore and became the cornerstone of my deck.
Thrun, the Last Troll : Thrun is still recognized today as being a very difficult threat to remove from a game. Regeneration, hexproof, and counter spell protection make him one tough cookie. Sigarda and Tracker make him even better.
Acidic Slime : Slime is one of the most elegant cards ever printed. It destroys stuff (including lands) and then stays on the board as a deathtouch threat. Works great with Rest-Angel and Beast Tracker. Talk about synergy here!
Vorapede : My top-end undying creature. Being able to fetch it (trample) with Beast Tracker means I can pull it out whenever I think a 5/4 with vigilance, trample, and undying will be useful...which is almost always.
Sigarda, Host of Herons : Fantastic card, but legendary cards like this and Thrun are tricky in a deck; having multiples is pointless and having too few means you can't rely on using them. Not a problem here, thanks to Beast Tracker.
Noncreature Spells:
Rancor : Another one of the best spells ever made. It was a shock when they decided to reprint it, but I was certainly glad they did. 0% of creatures in this deck do not benefit from a low cost, low risk +2/+0 and trample.
Beast Within : Great removal. Nearly every creature, save mana dorks, can handle the 'drawback' of this card. Basically it reads: "Turn 2, destroy any permanent at instant speed, you're welcome".
Lands:
Sunpetal Grove : This deck's mana base needs very little fixing, so very little fixing is present. I also wanted to keep as many forests as possible for Dungrove Elder and consistency, so there are only a couple of these in here.
Gavony Township : Township is fantastic at ending stalemates and is directly in line of my colors. The only reason there aren't more is it isn't great in multiples, and I need as many forests as I can manage. 2 is plenty here.
Sideboard:
Dungrove Elder : Just another copy of the big baddy in case I'm going up against removal-heavy decks or lots of large muscle.
Stingerfling Spider : One of the few creatures with reach in the deck that can be fetched with Beast Tracker. Not only that, but it destroys a flier and can be 'flickered' with Rest-Angel.
Thrun, the Last Troll : Again, another copy just in case. He's fantastic and having a back-up isn't a bad plan against tricky decks or decks where I need some heavy-duty blocking.
Apostle's Blessing : This was a great card back in its day. It provides protection against whatever color I'm playing against, which works aggressively and defensively. And it's easy to cast with the Phyrexian mana.
Day of Judgment : Wide removal if necessary. In this deck, I can actually regenerate Thrun after this, and most of my creatures benefit from a death thanks to undying. This almost a 4-mana one-sided removal here.
Dismember : Spot removal at instant speed basically for free. With Birds on the field this is far easier to cast, but I can often spare the 4 life for something really pesky.
Revive : For extra resilience against control decks. Not including these 3 copies, there are 34 possible targets (including sideboard) that can go straight back to my hand - most notably Beast Within or Acidic Slime.
Ratchet Bomb : Bomb destroys tokens in a heartbeat. It can also take out planeswalkers and other permanents, clearing the board. Again, this is practically one-sided removal with the resilience of this deck.
